Edge

1 hour ago, rovex said:

I see people have posted photos of a single coach and engine. 

 

Is this how these coaches were usually used or could they be added to any passing scheduled train?

I believe that they may have sometimes been added to a service passenger train to reach their destination and save the trouble of a bespoke stock movement, but when the business of doing their job came about, they would have been used as single car trains 

7 hours ago, Hilux5972 said:

So I finally managed to get my hands on a Dublo USA Scotsman from a Local shop here in New Zealand. Paid about £150 extra on top of what I paid from Hornby but thrilled to finally have it in my collection. Certificate number 38/500. Interesting to see the changes to the 2nd tender. Especially love the new tender to 2nd tender coupling and the sprung rear buffers.

Nice to see that they have finally updated the second tender 

I agree that the tone of the email was a little unusual to receive, but I do think that people are really taking a bit too much relish in mocking to be honest. 
 

The majority of the people commenting on such a manner are of the ‘not getting my money’ variety. I personally have had only excellent customer service from KR Models, and the fell is the only one which didn’t hit the mark. 
 

if you don’t want to be part of the crowdfunding, then fair enough, but perhaps it’s time to stop with the implications of being a scammer? 
 

For info, I’ve got a ‘Leader’ all paid for, and will be grabbing an LMS GT3 if I can find the cash 

I’m gonna be daft and say it’s a RTR ‘Great Bear’, for exactly no other reason than I want one :)

Cheers people - looks like the Pennington is my only bet for the time being 

Hi all 

anyone got any idea if the Ratty Arms in Ravenglass is still open? Google just says ‘temporarily closed’ and the website for the pub takes you through to the R&ER website with lots of ‘’this field to be completed’ sentences.

Im just thinking of an impromptu visit up there in a few weeks and the Pennington hotel is rather pricey if you eat dinner there 

Wanted bluebell since I missed out on the first batch, but was unwilling to pay upwards of £300 for it. Delighted to have my name down for one of these at £85 

thinks - if I buy a second one then I could sell it after this run sells out and make enough profit to cover both of the purchases…

(leaves in a hurry before bricks are thrown 😂)

The option to use a DC controller turned up to full was in the initial 2023 range announcement video, so Hornby knew it was possible 

Hoping to get to see Taw Valley in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed that a Hornby model is announced for it too

Quite. My system was most definitely jury rigged and even I don’t think it’s a decent solution as things stand. I certainly wouldn’t attempt decoder based DC operation with it with these chips.

I do agree that Hornby can’t really say ‘these work on DC’ with the variety of stuff out there, so from my personal perspective, it’s probably best to avoid it. It’s still a £65-£70 decoder that you’re risking, even if this is good value.

I agree that I’d like to see Hornby put out some sort of ‘custom sound’ editor or service, which would allow for more esoteric items, but I’m happy for them to get the basics on the go first.

Just for the record, my £12 mehano controller mated to a 4amp Hornby supply and turned up to full worked absolutely perfectly.

I’ll be changing to the official Hornby ‘connect your track to the mains’ cable as soon as I can actually find one available. Am off to the event at statfold tomorrrow, so will definitely be on the lookout there 

Quite. I had a little trouble getting all the gubbins into my W1 tender, but messing about with the size of the speaker enclosures sorted that, and it’s not like it was a massive issue.

I think my 3mt tank loco will likely be a bit trickier, but that’s part of the game. If Hornby can help out by producing a second gen decoder with a smaller Bluetooth antenna then there will be no complaints from me, but in the meantime I am perfectly satisfied with what I have tried 

3 minutes ago, Midnight-Freight said:

If I was to try and install the sound decoder into a Bachmann non-dcc ready class 08 would I be best off fitting a 8 pin socket and using the 8 pin decoder or can it be hard wired? I'd like to add the power pack as well and not sure how easy it would be to fit everything in. 

Not sure on how easy the conversion itsef would be, but with the wires/socket it’s a standard 8 pin decoder and wouldn’t be any harder than any other decoder to fit (having said that, the 8 pin is your best bet as it has a wiring loom to the socket whereas the 21 and next18 have sockets on the board itself)

the stay-alive attaches to the board of the decoder, so should be easy to install

7 minutes ago, Denny said:

It is quite disconcerting, especially when the missing sound files completely disable any movement! Thankfully once the profile is successfully installed everything works as it should. 

Indeed. I knew that there was a way to solve it - just had no idea what it was

8 hours ago, Denny said:

I'm really enjoying my first foray into digital control. HM700 has completely changed the dynamic of my small end to end layout. I haven't had anything other than DC so I probably sit within the target market. 

It was an easy migration - DC controller to max and off it went! Fantastic stuff! With the co-co loco at least. 

 

I think I might need to auto-calibrate my Hornby 09. I'm assuming, it's an old enough model not to have gizmos in it which tell the decoder which loco it is in (no PCB, just a socket).

Forgive my ignorance but can the auto-calibration be done by simply propping the loco on blocks and supplying power to the wheels? I don't have 1.5 meters of track! 

 

Couple of sidenotes/findings:

 

I bought two 8pin decoders and both had the missing sound file problem/bug? I found that if you ignore the message, re-install the function map and CV's before re-installing the full profile over the top it'll work properly first time. I tried many times to just re-install the relevant profile but ended up with the same missing sound files unless I installed the other two before re-trying. Others may have figured this out but I've seen guidance to just keep re-installing the profile until it eventually works. That said, my findings might just be coincidence...

 

I also found the default sound volume is way too high and caused crackles, even after sealing the enclosure with UHU glue. Thankfully you can just adjust it within the app! Neat! 

 

I'm planning some cl 09 butchery to install the Power Bank - it looks like it might be a tight squeeze in the cab. Has anyone attempted it yet with the Hornby HM7070/R7377?

I salute you for saying how you fixed this - was getting increasingly worried I had mucked mine up

9 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Having watched the informative video in question then one major 'take away' is that using one's 'daily driver' phone for this is a risky proposition.

 

I'll be waiting for the Android version anyway as I have half a dozen or more functional Android phones laying around so it would be easy to dedicate one as a toy train controller, assuming they're not too old to download the app when the time comes. Seems unlikely my iPod Touch 2nd. gen (only Apple device I own)  will cut the mustard with the Hornby app; its battery life is crap these days unsuprisingly.

I actually bought an iPod touch this morning for this exact purpose. Needs to be 6th gen minimum to run the app and iOS11 is needed. 
 

it seems that the app was designed to be as backwards compatible as possible, as you don’t often get them stretching that far back (I’m on iOS16-something on my phone)

Well it worked for me - based mostly off of the review above I’ve got myself a 8 pin decoder for my W1, a 21 pin decoder for one of my four Bachmann locos (yet to decide amongst a ‘city’, tornado, LBSCR Atlantic or a ‘Dukedog’), two power banks and a cheap iPod touch so that I don’t have to use my phone all the time.

in for a penny, in for a pound. Or £240 as it turned out…

Is there any actual news on what this is? 

The Q1 is my favourite type of steam loco - mostly because I enjoy a bit of peculiarity in my life. Am hoping to actually see C1 in steam one day, but we shall see.

when I visited the NRM last Wednesday she wasn’t looking in the best of shape. Her tender was parked up outside (possibly awaiting its turn in the conservation siding) and the loco itself was fenced off - presumably to stop people climbing on it 

definitely my ‘if I won the euromillions’ locomotive :)

2 minutes ago, Corbs said:

I could be wrong on this but I seem to remember reading that 1501 never got a crest and stayed in plain black during its entire working life with BR up to the point it was sold to the NCB, the lined black with crest it has now being a purely preservation-era livery.

I think it was the lining which is preservation exclusive. Appears to be unlined black with crest in the below

not my photo, if copyright holder would like it taken down then it will be, please just let me know 

1 hour ago, BachelorBoy said:

 

I never read any criticisms of it.

I did read somewhere that the angle of the flask wagon across the track meant that the initial impact simply moved it out of the way when hit and that therefore it couldn’t really be described as surviving the full force of said impact as per the publicity statements. 

There was also a comment that the engine of the diesel was removed from its chassis mountings/fastenings to increase the spectacle of the impact. No idea as to the merit of this story, but I do seem to recall that you can see the engine flying out the front of the loco, which is not something I recall happening in any other crash.

it’s the bit on fire that comes flying out in the clip below

As for the criticisms about the angle - not sure that I entirely agree myself - it still gets a fair old whack in the clip above and doesn’t seem to move to the side at all

I’d also like to add that I will make a beeline for any model of taw valley in black that Hornby produces… :)

On 18/02/2023 at 07:35, papagolfjuliet said:

 

Sample comment:
"The railwAy must think we are fools!! I am not fooled! This a blatant attempt to reinvent history and present a wrong image to the public.

THIS SO CALLED PRESERVATION RAILWAY KEEPS PROVIDING REASONS FOR ME NOT TO VISIT.

I Will take.My custom elsewhere, where history is correctly represented!"

 

I’m a bit late to the party here, but if history is being correctly represented, shouldn’t the steam engines be cut up to be replaced by other forms of traction? Any preserved railway is, by definition, a non-representative slice of history.

I for one will be doing my bit for the SVR as I’m lucky to live close enough to reach it fairly easily in about 90 minutes on public transport, and I enjoy going there a great deal. Until this year I’ve had a strict ‘no riding behind the diesels’ policy (although I admire how well they’ve been preserved) which I will now have to abandon, but I can’t say that that actually is a problem for me :)

I do question some of the decisions (not opening the railway this half term week seems a tad odd to me for instance) but the people running the railway have been doing it longer than me, so they almost certainly know something that I don’t :)

2 hours ago, No Decorum said:

 

Gentlemen, this makes me more nervous – I was already nervous because Sonic is new to 00 but I didn’t want to miss this. I’m waiting for a sound fitted version. If I had read of the problems, would I have ordered one? I suppose so. The question is, will I be lucky? Surely Rails wouldn’t bung sound into returns. Ah well, back to my truly marvellous Dapol Manor and try to forget about the A5 for a few weeks.

 

My thanks to you both and everyone who has posted.

In truth, there are only a few of us on here who have posted with problems, which would represent only a tiny fraction of the overall run - I wouldn’t be too worried before you see your models 

4 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Ping Rails an email explaining the faults and they will help and send you a return post label. I’ve just dropped mine off at the post office, I supplied photos and had the return label back a couple of hours later to print off. 

This is what I’ve done. It being late on a Saturday, I’m not expecting to hear anything back until Monday now. 
 

it’s a gorgeous looking model, so it’s a shame, but I suppose that that is how it is sometimes